The following FAQs were submitted by players, as part of a contest to write a FAQ for players, by players. The entries have been edited to fix mistakes. Thank you to the winners; demonwarrior, Thaenor, and Webster.

welcome, adventurer, I'm Scargonis and I will be your guide, I notice your starting out around here... or if not, you're looking for some more information, perhaps to get to know your way around the world? Yes, sure I'll help you... ... for a price that is...

Getting Started:
Before we get started you need to choose a race and class

Race: First of all you got to choose your gender. Male or female ... alright, that was piece of cake, moving on.
You have 8 races to choose from. Each one will offer different bonuses, however these won't really make much of a difference, for instance, demons may make better warriors, however, those few point alone won't secure you any big advantage.

So, make your choice and use the arrows on the side to determine how you want to look.

Class: Moving on now, you got to choose between the 3 possible classes available. You can either choose warrior, mage or scout. They each have their advantages and disadvantages. But they balance out each other, so you'll wind up having more chances against one class and less against the other.
In a nutshell:

the warrior is the heavy hitter and long time fighter, he can stand in the battlefield for longer that anyone else and bring down a few foes. Pretty much like Shakes... only tougher. Warriors also get a chance to block an attack based on their shield.

The Mage, doesn't trust much in their physical strength and agility, preferring to use the power of spells and bringing down some foes. Mage attacks can not be dodged or blocked, but mages can't avoid a hit either.

The scout, the scout is the "middle term" between the warrior and the mage. They're not as easy to go down as mages, but they're definitely stronger than the warriors, they're agile, so they can dodge your attacks.

if you'd like to know the specific numbers and boosts of status from each character and class you read more HERE

Once that is done. you can finally start playing the game.
----The game screen

now this is the game screen,

there is a lot to explore so I'll take it one bit at a time.

1) Tavern: this is where you'll be spending most of your time if you like adventure. In here you can find many people looking for adventurers to be completed. In each trip to the tavern you'll probably find different quests with different rewards. You'll notice a progress bar that says "thirst for adventure", pretty much as the name suggests, that is your will to go on quests and how much you can take of fire spitting lizards, crazy pirates and other monsters. Once your thirst hits zero you can do a few things on other screens to help pass the time, or you can talk to the bartender who will offer you a beer for the cost of 1 mushroom. This gives you 20 more thirst for adventure per drink.

There's also the shady man in corner, if you'd like to you can talk to him, he'll challenge you a game of cups, so if you're feeling lucky you can give it a try and just place your bet.

2) arena: this is where the battle between players happens. Every time you want to take it out on someone, this is where you go. Lots of people are ready to challenge you and you can do the same. Just take a randomly generated opponent from the Hall of Fame, or type in your target's name. But be careful with the opponents you choose. For each win, the winner is awarded some of the loser's gold and honor if the range between them is 950 honor or less.

3) City Guard: Need a few gold coins? The city needs guards. Simply state how long you wish to stay there working and you'll be rewarded a certain amount of gold. Notice you can't do some other things while you're working and if you cancel during your work you will not be rewarded anything.

4 and 5) The weapon and the magic shop. Over at the Weapon shop you can find weapons and amour that will suit you. Shakes is a cool guy, and he'll offer you different 8 pieces every day. You'll notice that as you go stronger he'll suggest cooler stuff. The magic shop works in a similar way, the only difference is that it offer trinkets, necklaces and bracelets as well as potions that will temporary boost your powers.
You can click the button to refresh all the items being sold for the cost of 1 mushroom per refresh. The items are renewed at midnight for free, automatically.

6) Stable: When you're adventuring and traveling back and forward you waste a lot of time. Perhaps a mount could make the boring travelling faster. The mounts at the stable can be rented for some time and will boost your speed, making quests run faster than usual. The special mount may be more expensive, but it will offer some cool bonuses to add, it's definitely worth a try.

7)... before I carry on to the next option let me tell you the currencies in our world. We have 2 different currencies.Gold: gold is earned from working as a guard, quests, and sometimes the arena. It's useful to buy weapons and equipment, potions and mounts. Sometimes you may lose gold from attacks in the arena. Remember you may be attacked even when you're not in the game.

Mushrooms: Mushrooms are the most powerful currency. They let you skip wait times, buy special items, and are needed to boost your guild's bonuses from 26 to 100. That's where this next option enters play. Mushrooms can be purchased with real money or with different payment options which are available here. With mushrooms you can do many things: buy beers (a total of 10 per day) that will increase your thirst, skip the traveling time between quests, fight in the arena (without waiting the 10 minutes per battle), refresh the items in the shops, buy a mount, and repeat dungeons without waiting. If you pay attention to the forum and the game, special mushroom sales will offer discounts and extra mushrooms. They're a powerful tool for the game, but they are not necessary if you want to succeed.

8) Character: This is your profile page. In here you can see your attributes, and increase them if you can pay the gold price shown next to them. You will also have a message you can write in the text box on the upper right.

Below that you have the medals (earned for completing a set number of tasks).

On the lower right corner you have 2 more options. "invite a friend" that you think that might like the game to join you and the scrapbook. As a good adventurer I'm sure you like to keep a record of where you've been and who've you fought. Every villain in the quests and dungeons you fight, as well as any equipment you own as well the one's from opponents you've defeated will be automatically recorded in your scrapbook. The more complete your scrapbook is, the higher experience bonus you'll get for completing quests.

Please notice this option may not be available at the beginning. I get some every now and then at my shop (Magic shop), and they cost around 25 gold. So if you visit me often you'll eventually be able to buy one.

9) Mail: This is where you receive your mail. If you're attacked by someone in the arena, a message will be sent to you here and you can see whether you won or lost and even see a replay of that battle, as well as who attacked you. .

10) Guild: As you advance in the game, you will eventually be invited into a guild. Guilds are parties of players that get together to pursue success together, take on challenges that could not be made by one alone, war with each other, and have fun. But in a guild fight, you must prepare yourself both for attacks and defenses. You can do so by clicking the sword, shield or monster when they're highlighted. These three buttons can be found above the guild chat box.
Do notice that you can either join an existing guild or create one yourself. If you're just starting for the first time, it is recommend that you ask other players to let you join their guild. They may be able to show you the world in greater depth and assist you in whatever you may need. In the guild screen, you will find large chat box in which you can communicate with your guild mates through chat. (for more information including special commands, read more in Extras)

11) Hall of Fame: if you want to be the top of top, the best of the best, this is where you can come and check how you're doing. As any brave hero you must start at the bottom. But you can earn your honor in the arena and rise in the hall of fame. Be careful, because others want to rise too, and they will beat you which may make you go down a few ranks. Guilds have a different chart that can be viewed if you click in top tab in the page.

12) Dungeons: In here you can take on a personal challenge and receive greater rewards. If your starting out you'll find the dungeons are all locked. At level 10 you will be able to find, win, and receive a key as a quest reward. That key opens the first dungeon. There are more keys that become possible to find at higher levels. Remember you may not immediately get them, they will be randomly awarded to you in a quest or some may even show up in shops.
Each dungeon is composed with 10 levels, each one with a different foe that you can fight for free every hour. After you defeat a monster, you may receive an epic item, a normal item, or just a gold prize. You will also get an exp reward. Only the 10th level of each dungeon, aka the boss, will always reward you an epic item. You can do one dungeon per hour, unless you choose to use mushrooms like mentioned above.

13) Options: In here you can toggle animation and resolution as well as sound volume and similar. You can also change your appearance and race by paying 1 (one) gold coin. Your race can be changed but your class will always be the same. Changing your race will not effect your attributes.

that's about it, with this you can finally adventure yourself in the world with no fear of getting lost.
now, onto some questions.

Some more Q&A:
1) What is Shakes and Fidget?
Shakes and Fidgets is a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) it's a game you can sign in, choose your character and race and start playing. It is also a German comic.

2) Do I need to download anything to play?
No, Shakes and Fidget doesn't require any downloads. You may need to keep your flash player updated for better game experience. You can download Flash in their website here

3) Do I have to pay in order to play
No, Shakes and Fidget is absolutely free. You can choose to pay and receive mushrooms as I explained above. But, those aren't necessary in order to successfully play the game.

4) I'm fighting opponents at my level but I'm always loosing, how come they're soo strong?
Notice that your level influences your stats and your total life. However, much of your strategy and strength relies on how you upgrade your stats in the character page and your equipment. If you find yourself in a situation like this I suggest you take look at your gear and see if you can buy better in the shops. I would also consider buying more stats to increase your power.

5) How do stats work? What does each one mean?
The stats work the same way for everyone, but there are a few (3) exceptions.
You have 5 stats, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Constitution and Luck.
Depending on your class, the 3 first will determine your attack power. If you're a warrior, Strength will determine how much damage you deliver in a fight, if you're a scout then dexterity is your damage stat, and if you're a mage, intelligence is what determines your damage. The stat that your enemy uses for damage is also what you use to resist their attack.

5.1)and what If I'm a mage and I fight another mage.
In that case, Strength and Dexterity will not have an influence in that fight. the higher intelligence will determine the higher power and the better defense if your equipment is the same, but there's more to be said in the topic of stats.

Constitution determines your total life (HP) and how long you can last in a battle. Earlier, I said that a warrior can stand in a fight longer than anyone else, it so happens that warriors are naturally boosted in their health, and most players also spend a lot of points in it. But that doesn't mean a mage wastes points in constitution or money by choosing equipment that boosts constitution. It helps everyone stay in the fight longer, even though it may not be easy.

Lastly, luck determines your critical hit chance. Luck can be at most 50%, meaning you have that chance of landing a hit stronger than usual. These may often be what determines a fight.

6) I heard that warriors can block hits with their shields and scouts can evade some hits, but a mage can't do either, doesn't that make it an unfair fight?
Not exactly. Warriors and scouts and only block/evade against each other.

7) what’s the best class?
There is no best race. Warriors often have lots of HP but can't deal as much damage as the rest. The Scout doesn't have as much HP as the warrior but can deal more damage than it. Lastly the mages have lowest HP but compensate having the higher damage. But well spent money on stats and good gear can make up for one's flaws or enhance its advantages; it's up to you to decide the best strategy that suits you best.

8) When I'm questing, can't I gamble with that weird looking man in the tavern?
Actually, yes you can. If you keep your mouse over the "tavern" button on the left side of the screen, he will eventually pop out with a smile of his weird looking face. Click him and you can then start setting your bets.

9) Tell me the extras in the guild chat.
you can simply type any words and then hit enter in the guild chat to send a message to your guild mates.
These codes will allow you a slightly different use of the guild chat.

/w (name of character and if there is a space in the name, replace it with "_")
this will allow you to send a whisper to any player in game. They will see it when they next enter the guild menu as purple text.

/gold (amount)
This donates a specified amount of gold to the guild.

/mushroom (amount)
this donates a specified amount of mushrooms to the guild

/act
this will switch the information in the guild member list. When hovering your cursor over the names of your guild mates, instead of seeing how much gold they've donated you can see the last time they were online. A sad smile :-( means they haven't been online since the last server restart. Type it again and the information is restored to the donation amounts.

/gold ;-) (amount)
This one will set the gambler in the tavern to start with a bet as big as you specify, after this just click in the tavern and accept the bet.

9) Do guilds really need my money or will the leaders and officers just take it for themselves?
Once the gold is donated to the guild it cannot be taken back, neither can the officers or even the leader take it for themselves. The money in the guild is used to boost the bonuses in the guild, pay for guild wars, and guild dungeons. The guild will need your contribution in order to boost itself so it may give you benefits, and for fights that will help your team rise in the ranks.

10) I'm already way past level 10 and I still haven't seen my dungeon key, is something wrong?
Be patient, you will automatically be rewarded a key from a quests pretty much like a normal item. It randomly appears so just be patient and wait for it. It may happen that your already level 20 and you still didn't receive the level 10 key (which is rare to happen). You will eventually get it. the later you get it, the easier it gets for you to complete the dungeon levels.

11) why is everyone in my guild always telling me to "click in"?
that is because your participation in attacks and defenses is important. During guild wars the characters are lined up by level, the lower are first and the higher levels at the end. They will fight each one and the winner just fights the next opposing guild member, until only one guild has living members left. That will be the winning guild. If you don't click the sword or monster, you don't get to fight. If you don't click the shield, you don't get to fight at full health, but fight at 50% health to start.

12) what happens if I don't click in?
If you don't click in for an attack or dungeon, then your character will not take part in that battle and your guild will be weaker. If you miss a guild defense than your character does show in the fight but only with half is HP.

13) Is there some free way to receive mushrooms.
Yes, you have a chance of receiving one mushroom from each quest. But notice these mushrooms cannot be donated to your guild. This also happens rarely.

14) How can I find more about what dungeon monster awaits me next?
You can find the list of dungeon monsters and their stats here and here. These are two lists that just present the information differently.

15) I can choose not to level and simply work and earn the gold to boost my status. What should I be more concerned when choosing a quest, Experience or Gold?
Some say Gold, others say experience, you will always get some of both per quest. But you can find out more here

16) How do I best use my mushrooms? Buying the best mount or using as many beers as I can?
Once again opinions may vary on this topic. The mount does make questing quicker, and thus the thirst used per quest is also smaller. Both would be the ideal, but in case you don't have mushrooms for it or want to find more you can read this

17) Whenever I log in my mail is filled with red messages saying another playing is attacking me repeatedly and always winning, thus making me loose my gold and honor. What do I do?
Best to read this first. As a side note I must warn you that if you attack players that are too low or higher than your rank and win, you will not receive gold/honor, same happens if you loose.

18) This scrapbook thing looks like a whole lot of trouble... isn't there any help you can give me?
don't tell anyone that I'm showing you this

The main attribute of warriors is strength. Warriors carry shields(the way warriors protect themselves from enemy attacks) that have a maximum 25% chance to block an enemy attack. Warriors have the greatest armor of all classes, up to 50%. Warriors deal the smallest damage but have the biggest hit point multiplier (5). Warriors may seem weak at the beginning but are very strong at high levels. There are 3 types of dominant warrior builds: damage, hit point and resistance.
Damage warriors have high strength so they deal more damage then other warriors. Damage warriors are strong against mages, scouts with low hp, and other warriors with lower strength. However, they are weak against enemies with high damage.
Hit point warriors don't deal as high damage as damage warriors, but have higher hp. If you're making a hp warrior you should concentrate on constitution, but should keep an eye on strength because you might get so weak that the high hp doesn’t help much. Hit point warriors are strong against enemies that deal high damage but have low or medium hp. They are weak against mages with medium or high hp and high damage, and damage warriors.
Resistance warriors have high dexterity and intelligence which is good against all types of scouts and mages, but have less strength and constitution then other warriors. Resistance warrior is the most expensive warrior type because you have to keep increasing dexterity and intelligence as well as strength and constitution. Resistance warriors are good against all types of mages and scouts but weak against other warrior types.

The main attribute of scouts is dexterity. Scouts don’t have shields but can evade(chance to evade is 50% after level 10). Scouts are the combination of warriors and mages. Scouts have medium armor ,up to 25%, do medium damage(more than warrior but less than mages) and have a lower constitution modifier than a warrior, but higher than a mage. The multiplier for a scout is 4. There are 2 main types of scouts: damage and hit point.
Damage scouts have high dexterity so they deal high damage. The damage that these scouts deal with a critical hit gets close to the damage a mage deals. Damage scouts are good against enemies with low hp but are weak against resistance warriors and enemies with high damage.
Hit point scouts deal less damage than other scouts but have higher hp amounts. Hp scouts are pretty much the same as hp warriors but hp scouts have a bit less hp and do a bit more damage. Hp scouts are good against enemies that deal more damage but have low or medium hp.
You can try making a resistance scout but they get pretty weak because of the low hp and damage.

The main attribute of mages is intelligence. Mages don’t have a way to protect themselves from enemy attacks, but their attack can't be blocked (warrior) or evaded (scout). They have the lowest armor, up to 10% snd the lowest hp amounts, but they deal the highest damage. All mages are weak against enemies with high damage and good against enemies with low hp. There are 2 main types of mages. The first is the high damage mage, who builds up their intelligence very high, but has to win quickly because they can not take many hits. The second is the critical hit mage. This build maximizes critical hit chance while also investing in constitution. While mages have the lowest hp multiplier (2), the damage is already pretty high. A critical hit can turn the tide of battle quickly. These mages have the high constitution so that they can survive long enough to get a critical hit. They are weak against all forms of high damage enemies, UNLESS they get many critical hits.

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